One of the most oft recommended ways to reduce your energy consumption is to begin using compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs.  We have recommended this purchase both in the Greener Under Twenty and in the Green Life Project series.  

Many will bring up that the bulbs contain mercury, which is true.  However, they can be recycled at more and more places, including Home Depot stores.  And even if they don’t make it to the recycling center, which is bad, because they should go there, there is still less mercury being emitted by coal-fired power plants due each bulb replacing a less efficient incandescent bulb.

So, they’re much more efficient and can be recycled, taking away that mercury complaint, which makes this seem as if it might be a no-brainer.  Not so fast.  It’s not so simple!

Light emitting diodes (LEDs) have been touted recently as another contender for replacing our lights.  They are even more efficient than CFL bulbs, however are much more expensive than CFLs which are usually more expensive than incandescent bulbs.

Plus, Matthew Phillips sent me this story from the Times of London (‘Green’ Lightbulbs Poison Workers) last week, which highlights workers being poisoned due to working with the mercury in the bulbs in factories in China.  

Since we’re discussing the environment, it’s important to step back and take a look at some of the aspects of our daily lives that might receive little attention, yet potential changes abound that could have a huge positive envirohuman impact.

So, standardized reusable shipping containers?  Yes.  At your place of work, you likely see hundreds of boxes come in the door, get unpacked, broken down, and sent off as garbage, or, hopefully, shipped out for recycling (or maybe you don’t see them, but they’re there).

Let’s take, boxes of printer paper, for example.  We all likely do some printing or copying in our everyday lives, or at least use paper that someone has printed information onto in our meetings and correspondence.  Billions if not trillions of sheets are printed daily.  Boxes, like those at the left, are used to ship that paper to our place of work, and, once unpacked, most of them make their way to the dock of the building in which we work, again, hopefully at least for recycling.

Recycling is a good way to continue the lifecycle of usable material, but it is highly energy- and cost-intensive for the very reasons of shipping, water use, and chemical, manual, and mechancial processes that all go into continuing the cycle of that product material, like the paper fibers used in cardboard boxes.  A better recycling process is one in which the material is reused again and again, hundreds, if not thousands of times before it gets sent off for recycling in which it gets broken down into its raw materials for future reproduction of new materials and goods.

What the heck am I talking about?  At your place of work, you likely receive a good deal of mail, which, hopefully gets recycled when you’re finished reading it.  But have you noticed the bins that the U.S. Postal Service (USPS), the United Parcel Service (UPS), and Federal Express (FedEx) use to bring your mail?  It’s usually a plastic-, angle-sided, open-ended container with metal reinforcements, that make these containers so reusable.

You might also receive beverages, like bottled water and sodas, that might be shipped in reusable hard plastic trays, like those here from Pepsi-Cola, that also can be reused many times before needed to be broken down again for recycling.  Although I recommend you choose a better beverage option: water, served from a reusable water bottle, these trays prove that shipping materials can be made to withstand repeated use, abuse, sliding and slamming all over the country (and world!) and that disposable, one-use shipping containers need to become a rarity.

Inter-office mail systems often reuse envelopes within a building several times before discarding them, which goes to show that there are many ways in which we have built the idea of “reusability” into our daily habits.  That’s something we need to take to the next level and push toward doing on an even larger scale.

On and off of postal and parcel trucks, beverage trucks, and others, we receive shipments of items from both reusable and those deemed throwaway, one-use packages.  But back to those boxes of printer paper.

Printer paper typically is packaged in reams of 500 pages, wrapped in paper, and placed ten to a box.  Because large businesses (and small ones, too) use so much paper, this results in millions of boxes being used for the purpose of packaging paper (only one of very many items packaged in this way) and then being tossed shortly thereafter.  Why not mimmick the boxes used by our postal deliverers?

We could have plastic ones made from recycled plastic product with straight sides, metal reinforcements, and a corresponding lid that would cover the box (just like the cardboard ones have).  In this manner, the boxes could be picked back up by those delivering the paper, be it OfficeMax or others.  The point is that reusable packaging for such industrial products, where the packaging does not even matter to the consumer, are a great place to start with reusable packaging.  USPS and Pepsi are already doing it, now how about others?

Certainly, the boxes may weight slightly more than the cardboard, however the fact that they are reusable will be a net monetary savings to the companies using them, and a net savings to the environment as our methods of shipping move toward clean, renewable fuel sources of the next decade or two.  Also, the fact that less paper will be used on packaging boxes would be even more helpful.

Okay, you might find this quibbling or silly, but you’re on an environmental site where, yes, the smallest drops of waste can and will be counted.  But you should listen in, because this tip will save you time, money, and improve your envirohuman impact — all with one, one-time purchase.  Ready?

Buy a reusable lint brush.  Yes, you likely do not even think about greening your lint brush, I know!  But look, some people buy those silly “lint rollers,” which amount to a fat roll of masking tape being put onto a roller backward, so that the sticky side is outward.  Back and forth a user rolls until, oh no! — it’s not working as well as it was before.  The sticky side gets covered in lint.

But not to fear, the user thinks!  There is yet another layer of tape below this piece, allowing me to continue on making my pants look nice while making the earth look ugly.  Yes, that tape makes its way into landfills and is overall yet another matter contributing to our conspicuous consumption.

Admittedly, I once owned such a roller. Workers often stash one of these at work to spiffy up before the big meeting with the boss.  And one in the closet.  And alongside the ironing board.  But there’s a much greener way!  The reusable lint brush is specially designed to collect lint on its surface and can easily be cleaned by using a reverse action against one’s hand.  This is greener because it likely will last you for many years without need for replacement.

At the end of a lint roller’s life, one likely throws the handle away because the new one will inevitably have its own new handle.  And, there’s no telling when you might run out, so there you’ll be, almost ready for your meeting, when you think that you can peel off the lint-covered outer layer and reveal a new sticky one beneath — only to see that you now have an empty roll!  There you are attempting to use some scotch tape to clean off the rest of the lint, or you go to the meeting with noticeable fur from your dog, who thought giving you a kiss goodbye was as harmless as it was loving.

Okay, so lint is not such a big problem, but chances are most of us are using something to remove it at some point in time, and for under $20 and less than twenty minutes of your time, you can do it a little greener, with a reusable lint brush.

We all see the constant stream of news, commercials, and websites claiming new ways we can and should green our lives (hey, you’re on one of those sites right now!), but it can get difficult to discern from that, or rather, sift out of all of it, a few tips you plan to implement immediately to improve your personal envirohuman impact.

Here, I have compiled for you a list of five areas of your life for you to examine and begin making improvements to reduce pollution.  Ready?

1. Transform your transportation: If you can (and have not changed already) consider getting to school, work, shopping, and play by means other than your own personal vehicle.  So explore the opportunities of using public transportation, biking, or walking. If these options do not fit the bill all of the time, consider implementing them some of the time, so maybe you can walk to the store but public transportation may not be available to you, so you might end up driving to work. Also, the option of carpooling is available in most areas, so try a website such as e-rideshare or a slew of others.  Also, make sure your tires are fully inflated and do not accelerate and break suddenly.  With gas prices as high as over $4.00, if you are tired of filling the tank on your older car (or for many, SUV!), consider buying a hybrid or other more fuel-efficient car — it will pay you dividends for the less gas you use and reduced carbon footprint!
2. Change your household cleaners: I’m going to direct you to our rapidly increasing list of product reviews for specific products’ information, but concentrate on finding truly greener products, ones that list the ingredients on the label, and if you have the time, investigate the safety of those ingredients, an area where usually, Wikipedia can help.  Concentrate on finding one quality “green” dishsoap, laundry detergent, and all-purpose cleaner, looking for natural, petroleum-free, plant-based, biodegradable products, especially, and you will be well on your way.
3. Greener thinking by greener reading: Begin frequenting a green website that can offer you daily news and tips related to your new, green lifestyle to offer you encouragement and continued ideas for little ways to live a more environmentally-friendly life.  What does this do for you?  While websites like Grist and Tree Hugger are great, and rather all-encompassing, for some, it can feel almost like too much advice and tips.  You can count on EnviroHumanImpact to provide you with something everyday that puts you in a greener mood, including tips, our different series of posts, like Greener Under Twenty, can give you realistic, simple life changes, usually for less than $20 in fewer than twenty minutes.  EHI provides, “just enough,” rather than more environmental information than you can possibly read in one sitting — and we will not overflow your RSS feed everyday — typically one or two per day from us at EHI.  You can join our RSS feed for a daily dose of information and advice.  Plus, reading a green-focused website will keep you on track toward a more sustainable lifestyle!
4. This one is easy!  Save some energy, money, and the world from significant amounts of pollution by switching over to compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs), which now can be recycled at Home Depot!
5. Speaking of recycling, if you are not recycling, then you should be.  Find ways at work and home to recycle paper, metals, plastic products, and organic matter!  It is highly energy- and environment-intensive to extract raw materials from the earth, and it is in most cases better to recycle your garbage.

I come across it everyday: people who have, for whatever reason, not jumped on the sustainability boat. They’re going down with the (rapidly sinking) over-consumption, worry-not-about-waste boat. Maybe they have not been reading it in the newspapers and magazines as the movement has re-cemented itself like it has not done since “recycling” became a mainstream concept.

But I see people all of the time who don’t turn off lights when they are not in use (sure, we all forget, but I’m talking about those who always seem to leave them on), don’t recycle when there is a recycling bin right next to the trashcan, and who generally do not take an interest in improving their envirohuman impact.

According to an article I recently found on Cnet.com, titled: New Way to Save Energy: Disappearing Ink, technology is currently being developed to create paper than can be reused instead of thrown away or recycled.

Ultimately, there is something to be said for being able to hold a piece of paper in your hand for viewing certain kinds of information. Take for instance, a menu at a restaurant that is reprinted with new menu items on a daily basis. What if, instead of throwing it away at the end of every day, you could just reprint it onto the same page? It may some day be a thing of the past! Check out the video below to see it in action:

What do I do with my old electronics? I know the feeling. You have something new but the older version, the one you replaced, still works. Let’s say you replaced your ink jet printer with a laser jet printer all-in-one, printer, copier, scanner, and fax. But your old printer still works and you have no idea if you should keep it, “just in case,” throw it away, or give it away.

Chances are, keeping it is not the best option. Most items like that are kept until one realizes he has kept way too many “just in case” items and purges them in one fell swoop. When your new one eventually stops working, you are most likely going to go out and purchase a new one and not dig out the dusty ink jet printer from the basement which now has bugs in it (literally) and where did its power cord and software go?

The Environ|Mentality: There is usually a way to make your consumption less envirohumanly toxic, but there is also usually an available excuse you can make. Overcome that temptation by realizing a little effort goes a long way.

We all have done it: “I’m in too much of a hurry to take my soda can down the hall to the recycling bin, so I just put it in my own trashcan at my desk.”

“I get all confused when I use the double-sided copying function. I don’t know how to use it.”

My favorite: “Gosh, I print so much I go through a few trees every week.” Yes, admitting the crime of printing items that just as easily could have been viewed on your monitor makes it all better.

One day at work I was heading down the elevator when the doors opened up on another tenant’s floor. I could not help but notice a leather desk chair in perfect condition (at least to the naked eye). It had two neon orange tags on it to signify that it was in the freight area for disposal and not just for storage.

Seeing the item as free game for the taking — any piece of furniture headed for the dumpster essentially is up for grabs — I wheeled it onto the elevator and put it into storage until I could arrange for it to be taken home (I don’t own a vehicle).

A few weeks passed before I both had a vehicle in town (borrowed from my girlfriend’s parents) and had a pass to remove the piece from the building. This rule is in place because although the item was being thrown away, the orange tags are very easy to acquire and so many items could be taken out illegitimately in that manner. So, I had to get a pass in order for security to allow the item to leave the building. The pass serves as a validation of legitimacy.

Two floors down or one floor up, use the elevators. That’s the rule. It used to go for reducing congestion at elevators. But now it also would mean reducing your negative envirohuman impact, because when an elevator has to move you from floor to floor, a motor is moving both your weight and that of the elevator car, cables, and other mechanisms.

I made this decision originally because I was making ten to twenty trips per day between the two different floors my company occupies in a high-rise. At the beginning of the year, I decided that in order to shed a few extra pounds, I would take the stairs a majority of the time.